Category: General
I’ve said this a few times before, but we really are starting to get some new and interesting things in the ‘ole Coolsmartphone inbox now. Today it’s this little magic water reminder thing (that’s my description anyway). It straps onto a water bottle and reminds you to drink …
Recently you may have noticed that our commenting system has changed somewhat. The new system allows you to add your comments much more easily than before and adds a newsfeed too. However, we’re having a number of issues with it. We’ve tried over the last few weeks to …
Yup, 4G just got cheap. OK, so you’re not going to get bleeding-edge technology throughout the whole smartphone at this price, but £50 will get you Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and a 5 megapixel rear shooter. Other specifications include a strong-facing 2 megapixel camera, quad-core CPU running at 1GHz, …
The Chocolate factory went all-in on one of their more interesting annual events. The speakers were tight, and the announcements flew by. We were expecting two Nexuses and boy did Google deliver. First up, there was the Nexus 5X. This was the second 5 inch phone made by …
It’s no secret that Blackberry’s hardware and build quality are second to none, but as of late the manufacturer has lost its “mojo” and sales continue to falter. This has been blamed on Blackberry’s own OS (Now at Blackberry OS 10.3.2), recent devices like the Blackberry Passport won …
Today China’s official certification database — TENAA, passed a previously unannounced HTC branded handset from HTC. It’s believed to be the HTC One M9e, a scaled-down model of the standard M9. M9e Specs Aluminium unibody. 5-inch Full HD display as per the M9. 2.2GHz octa-core Helio X10 processor. …
It’s well-rumoured that Microsoft have a new handset or two just over the horizon, namely the Lumia 950 and the 950 XL. It’s believed these will be shown to the world at the beginning of next month at an event in New York. Well, on Forever Nokia Latinoamérica’s Facebook, they …
As you know, this weekend people will be rushing out to get the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. It went on sale yesterday so here is a rundown of the offers, pricing and additional value added extras available on the various UK networks. Vodafone If you decide to …
If you’re inside and don’t have much coverage, a WiFi hotspot could be your saviour. Provided you’re a Vodafone user and you’re using the correct phone, the network will soon be letting you make calls via WiFi. The system, which launches in the autumn, will be accessible on …
A minor bug-bear for us Brits can be the fact that we have to force technology to speak to us in proper English. If you use Word, you’ll need to fiddle around to switch it to “English UK” and we have to put up with devices called “Honor” …
Ofcom, the British telecoms regulator, has revealed it is about to increase the fees it draws from the UK’s network providers. Ofcom charge a rate for using the mobile airwaves, but they’re now cranking up the costs by almost a factor of three. Currently it draws £64.4m in fees …
Boosting your battery back up is a daily task. Here we have a charger from aLLreLi. It’s ideal for travellers as there’s a stack of slot-in interchangeable plugs in the box. Here in the UK I’m obviously using the UK adapter, but you get the EU plug, Australian …
This Android powered Blackberry seems to have been teetering on the edge of existence for a while now. First someone caught wind that it was in the works. They spoke of a Blackberry built, Android powered QWERTY slider. It certainly sparked my interest. Then there were small video …
Traditionally most of us have the expectation that watches are a certain shape – circular. For a while, smartwatches struggled to accommodate this traditional shape until relatively recently when a few Android Wear devices with round faces started to make an appearance. Pebble was an early entry into the …
Put this one squarely into the ‘First World Issues’ box. Just picture the scene: you’re on the way to work or on your lunch break, you don’t have long to get back to the office but you absolutely, desperately, madly need a skinny mocha choca latte frappe with …
Remember FreedomPop? After other networks tried and failed to offer completely free mobile plans, FreedomPop said in May that they’d be heading to the UK to offer free and paid-for SIM-only tariffs. However, with a launch date of “summer” we were getting more than a little worried when …
Locking your house is something you still do with a key. However, when you’re locking your car you’ll probably zap it with a clever fob. Why, then, don’t we have something similar for our homes? Yale, those people who’ve been making locks and keys for quite some time, …
Garmin really don’t you to just go out and buy one of those GoPro cameras. They know a lot of people will, so they’re trying everything to get you to .. errmm.. not. Their new Garmin VIRB XE has something extra. It’s called “G-Metrix”, which adds information into …
Last years Nexus 6 was the first Nexus handset to have a maximum storage capacity of 64 GB. Before that, the maximum storage space that Google offered in a Nexus device was a measly 32 GB. As apps grow in size, (I remember when I though that 12 …
The ability to remotely control the various gadgets in your home is becoming commonplace. From controlling your DVR from the other side of the world, to perhaps setting your heating to automatically come on when you leave work – there doesn’t seem to be much you can’t control from your smartphone. The …
It looks like the wait is over. Google have sent out invites for their ‘Google Event’ on September 29th, at 9 a.m. PT (Pacific Time – that’s 5 p.m for us folks in Blighty and CSP Towers). We are expected to finally get a good look at the …
Some of the items we get to review area quite complicated. They need research and a fairly wordy write-up. This, on the other hand, not so much. The Suaoki car charger is everything you’d expect it to be out of the box. It’s portable, easy to use and …
4 port USB wall charger. My night time ritual goes something like this.. Put the cat out Lock the doors Make sure all the windows are closed Walk around the house looking like Mr T from the A-Team with a multitude of charger leads and plugs round my …
Processor manufacturer Qualcomm has announced the latest version of its Quick charge system, now imaginatively named “Quick Charge 3.0”. It’ll debut on the Snapdragon 820 chipset next year and will then roll out to the Snapdragon 620, 618, 617 and 430 platforms. Quick Charge 3.0 will allow compatible phones …
Technology doesn’t have to be be dull, in fact it can become a fashionable accessory to your life, a little extension of your personality or just great to look at. A great example of a company trying to inject a little style into a our technology packed world …
WhatsApp has been around for a while now. In my sphere of friends, colleagues and family members it used to be something a few people used every now and then for perhaps contacting their friends abroad. It was cheaper than texting a foreign number, and the result was …
Just days after we told you about the upcoming Vodafone VoLTE and it’s … errr… not quite here still. However, the WiFi calling that EE has been making a big deal about has almost arrived on Vodafone. The network tell us that the list of compatible handsets is …
What’s that? I shouldn’t be writing articles after just two hours sleep? Pah. What’s the absolute worse that could happen here. I don’t need no sleep to write proper. We were at the Honor 7 launch just a few short days ago and, we have to say, it …
The first in a series of “How to” articles begins with the best way to get a good price on your next plan. Now, let’s admit it, we’re creatures of habit. We usually get to the end of our contract and then we’ll call our current network to …
Back in 2002, when I started this site, I was writing about one smartphone. It was a little tricky because, as you know, I was just a toddler back then and couldn’t type proper good like what I does now. However, times change and now we’re getting emailed …
Back in May we covered the launch of free mobile provider FreedomPop. They promised to launch here in the UK this summer with £0 per month plans but, as we head into September and the kids return to school, we’ve still not heard anything on a launch. Despite …
If you’ve got yourself an Android handset then I can safely bet that it’s silently tracking your movements. Even if GPS is off, the network location will be logging your position. We’ve covered the fact that you can access this stored data before, but after logging in last …
OK, so you’ve got your clever Nest Thermostat. It’s working great and saving you money, but it can do so much more when it’s hooked into other clever gadgets. One such system is the Myfox Home Alarm. It’ll tie in with the Nest Thermostat and the Nest Protect …
Acer didn’t just have phones to release at the their event during IFA, they also unveiled the Predator Gaming Tablet… This is a very unique proposition. It is a tablet that has been designed primarily for gaming. It runs Android 5.1 on an Intel Atom X7 and is …
The connected fridge-magnet notification system known as Triby has appeared yet again. This time we’ve got some pricing, with Amazon offering it for $199 with deliveries beginning on October 30th. Here in the UK, although that works out at around £132, it’s £159 on Amazon.co.uk, but you can …
I’m not totally sure how this video has gone viral suddenly, because it’s around three years old now. Anyhow, this happens all around the world. Nobody is perfect and I’ve seen drivers across Europe, America, China and here in the UK doing it at the wheel. The familiar …
A couple of years ago we covered the original iKettle. The WiFi-enabled kettle allowed you to start boiling up a storm from the comfort of your armchair – saving vital minutes of TV viewing-time or basically letting you fire up the kettle for your tea while you’re still …
We’ve all seen those portable chargers. You boost them up from your wall charger, put them in your pocket and then you can transfer the charge to your smartphone to keep those much-needed tweets and Facebook updates rolling in. However, if you stick a solar charger onto one …
Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Oppo (which a number of our team members have had devices from), has today announced that they are now taking pre-orders for their latest flagship device: the Oppo R7. Specs of the Oppo R7 are: 6-inch, 1080p AMOLED display. Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615 chipset. 32GB internal …
We get fed some rather interesting news and rumours via our contact form. Today we’ve had a tip that Three are about to give their customers a rather nice little present. Rumour has it that their chunk of 800MHz spectrum will be switched on from September 10th, which …
